Washington Shore

We love to take pictures of flowers and I couldn't resist posting this one.

We left the Mt. Baker area on Friday, September 19 and drove southwest toward the ocean. We crossed onto Fidalgo Island where we went when we took the ferry except that this time we went south down to the tip of the island. It is farming area. At the south tip we crossed over the bridge at Deception Pass. We learned that the water actually “boils” when the tide goes in or out. We could see it when we stopped. The bridge itself was high and beautiful as we crossed onto Whidbey Island. Whidbey Island is the longest of the islands and the second longest in the U.S. We spent some time in Coupeville, enjoyed some delicious clams and cod and explored the shops. We went to the lighthouse at Fort Casey and enjoyed watching the deer eat berries.

We have been going to National Parks and getting passport stamps in our book since 1986. We found out that there is a passport book for lighthouses. Well, we started one of those also and now have three stamps in it.

We drove to the south end of Whidbey Island and at Clinton took the ferry to Mukilteo where we stayed two nights and went to the Mukilteo lighthouse.

It rained most of the time we were in Mukilteo. On Sunday we drove down through Seattle and were glad that they had an HOV lane because there was a Seahawk game and folks were all coming into town. We hunted another lighthouse close to Tacoma at Brown’s Point. We drove through Olympia and saw the capital from a distance. We are lunch at a restaurant called The Rusty Tractor. I couldn’t resist a picture and a special one of a Farm All for my dad.

We had a beautiful drive from there to Ocean Shores. If you look for it on a map you will see that Ocean Shores is way out on a long peninsula. It was a fun place and there was much more to do than we could accomplish. The first morning we took a walk and ended up walking over 3 miles including down to the ocean.

We saw four deer out getting their breakfast. The walk was more than I should have done as my ankle flared up again. We did go to Gray’s Harbor Lighthouse which is in Westport just across the peninsula. BUT we had to drive for 1 ½ hours because there was no ferry across at this time of year. We drove all away around Gray’s Harbor. I talked Bob into stopping at a roadside store for seafood. We went to Brady’s (right across a bridge) and bought some crab, scallops, shrimp, salmon and oysters. We learned that the oysters were grown right there in the ocean water under the bridge. They were the best oysters I have ever had. We had oyster stew two days. We didn’t take a trip on Tuesday and it rained Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday. I worked on some Christmas projects and will post those pictures in January.

We decided to head to Oregon on Saturday. We stopped at Fort Vancouver National Park before we crossed the Columbia River into Oregon. The river is awesome. And we finally get to mark off Oregon. This is the first that either Bob or I have been in Oregon. We drove quickly through Portland and then headed southeast to Bend. We didn’t study the topography well before we left. We drove up into the mountains and close to Mt. Hood. We were surprised and even more surprised as we viewed the huge deep gorge cut by the Deschutes River. We may try to see more this week. We couldn’t get any pictures on the way.

We are so thankful for safe travel and good health. I am getting stronger each day, but not as fast as I would like. We have been especially remembering our friends in South Asia that are in areas with unrest. We trust in the Lord’s protection each day and pray for each of our friends.